How to Murder Your Wife

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How to Murder Your Wife

1965

1h 58m

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

64%

Tomatometer

14 Reviews

64%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Stanley Ford (Jack Lemmon) is a successful cartoonist and happily single. That is, until, he gets drunk at a friend's bachelor party and impulsively proposes to the beautiful woman who pops out of the cake (Virna Lisi). Once sober, he regrets the decision, but she won't agree to a divorce. Stanley jokingly vents his frustrations in his comic strip by having the main character kill his wife. But when his actual wife goes missing and Stanley is arrested for her murder, he has a change of heart.

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TIME Magazine

05/09/2011

A nimble comedy that doesn't make much sense because it makes nonsense, most of it screechingly funny and played by knockabouts who know that the slapstick was invented for keeping an idea aloft, not for beating it into the ground.

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Variety Staff

Variety

03/26/2009

Finesse and desire aren't enough to overcome the fact that Axelrod's script doesn't make the most of its potentially antic situations.

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Bosley Crowther

New York Times

05/09/2005

3/5

Believable or not, this stuff is funny just so long as one can go with the sour joke- -and that depends upon one's tolerance of trivia and also, perhaps, upon whether one is a fellow or a girl.

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Dwight MacDonald

Esquire Magazine

08/13/2019

In the screwball tradition, but the old shack has been redecorated with solid-mahogany furniture, plush drapes and wall-to-wall carpeting.

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TV Guide

05/09/2011

3.5/4

This dated comedy is saved by Lemmon's comedic genius which eschews macho.

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

06/11/2005

2/5

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V M.

@IndianWarrior Oct 26

Big time LOL 😂 entertainment

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Pari P

@RT78749242 02/18/2025

The movie literally says "Marriage is an institution that men are bullied into by women. Every man would press a button to make their wife disappear given a chance to do so without any consequences".

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Bruce J

@RT79446994 01/26/2025

What a great flick. Granted it is lighthearted and made with 60's standards, but it is funny! The sound track is under appreciated. What a way to spend an evening when you can't decide what to do...

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Cheryl P

@RT20487213 11/16/2024

It’s about a man who goes to a bachelor party and gets drunk out of his mind and ends up marrying the woman who was hired to come out of a cake. He is a committed bachelor and now has to cope with the situation. It’s very funny and something that would never be shown on television today, which makes a refreshing change. It’s the comedy that is life and the differences between men and women, especially back in the day when the movie was made.

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Steve D

@RT35616104 04/15/2024

Dark and NEVER amusing.

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ed b

@RT91297355 01/26/2023

This is a very funny and very clever film that would not be made today. Brilliant acting, brilliant plot and Jack Lemmon and Terry Thomas just gel perfectly. Show this one to your kids for a good clean funny movie with no drugs and no profanity.

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Richard Quine

Director

Jack Lemmon

Stanley Ford

Virna Lisi

Mrs. Ford

Terry-Thomas

Charles

Eddie Mayehoff

Harold Lampson

Claire Trevor

Edna

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Synopsis

Stanley Ford (Jack Lemmon) is a successful cartoonist and happily single. That is, until, he gets drunk at a friend's bachelor party and impulsively proposes to the beautiful woman who pops out of the cake (Virna Lisi). Once sober, he regrets the decision, but she won't agree to a divorce. Stanley jokingly vents his frustrations in his comic strip by having the main character kill his wife. But when his actual wife goes missing and Stanley is arrested for her murder, he has a change of heart.

Director: Richard Quine
Producer: George Axelrod
Screenwriter: George Axelrod
Production Co: Murder Inc.
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 28, 2009
Runtime: 1h 58m